<p>I live in northwest Indiana, ~30 miles from Chicago.
I'm going to be a senior. Heres's a short list of credentials so i can get a more specialized list:
Sat: 790 eng, 760 math, 670 writ
SAT II: 790 bio, 740 Lit
AP: 5 bio
GPA: 4.06 weighted, maybe 3.7 (possibly lower) unweighted
XTRA CUR: Nothing much, a few throwaways (german club, NHS, intramurals), a few national medals i Science Olympiad and a lot of state medals, a little volunteering.</p>
<p>Right now, I'm looking at the following universities:
Uchicago, Northwestern U, Washington U St. Louis, Indiana University Bloomington.</p>
<p>-Before, I didn't think LAC's had anything to offer, but now I am seeing that some are pretty good and prestigious (for entrance into med school, not my personal satisfaction). -So, I am looking for good LAC's in the area.
I want to stay fairly close to home (Washington U being farthest at 6 hours) because I am very close to my immediate and extended family.</p>
<p>Any recommendations of good LACs near NW Indiana that would give me the education and opportunities necessary to enter medical school, but that also have other fields of study in case I change my mind later (i.e business is a strong #2). </p>
<p>Thanks in advance, all. I will eagerly await your responses....then have to sift through the piles of mail and internet articles to research each</p>
<p>Wouldn’t let me edit again, looks like unweighted is around 3.75 (used a calculator)</p>
<p>Not sure if you’re looking to go into Ohio, but check out Kenyon College. It has a really great pre-med program that I wish I had discovered back when I was applying last year.</p>
<p>Beloit is close to you and a very good LAC.
[Beloit</a> College: Pre-Medicine: health professions advisory committee](<a href=“Health Professions Advisory Committee • Beloit College”>Health Professions Advisory Committee • Beloit College)</p>
<p>Beloit would only be a couple of hours away from you (depending upon Chicago traffic). </p>
<p>A little closer for you would be Kalamazoo College. It is my understanding that Kalamazoo is stong in the basic sciences, offers lots of opportunities for undergraduate research and has a well known foreign study component. The more I read about Kalamazoo, the more I wish that I would have considered this school more seriously when I was choosing a college. </p>
<p>Earlham is another place I would look at. Earlham is stong in the sciences.</p>
<p>Off the top of my head, other places you could look at (within that 6 hour drive-time limit) are:
Hope College
Depauw University
Denison
Centre</p>
<p>Pre-med programs are great at any school. The most important is to get very high UG GPA (shoot for higher than 3.75) and decent MCAT score, both are possible at any place. Prestige is not required, save your $$ for Med. school. Classes are extremely challenging anywhere even for valedictorians from private schools.</p>
<p>Knox in Illinois. Oberlin, but it is farther. </p>
<p>Also, not LACs, but in the Midwest and worth considering: Notre Dame, Case Western.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody for the great suggestions. I have a follow-up question, though. Benefits of these LACs over larger universities?
Do they have:
Smaller classes,
More open spots for undergrad research,
Fewer TAs,
etc.</p>
<p>Regardless of another question being posed, this in no way means stop suggesting LACs</p>
<p>Smaller classes - yes
More open spots for undergrad research - yes - less research overall but no grad students to compete with
Fewer TAs - yes</p>
<p>I like the Earlham idea, too.
It does not seem to me that DePauw would be right for you, but it would not hurt to check it out.</p>
<p>You can find small classes, undergrad research, and few TAs at big state schools too. You just may have to try a little harder–ie, all my small classes are part of the Honors College (about half my courses during frosh-jr year through HC, and none had >40 students), my undergrad research at a cancer lab is off-campus but affiliated with my bio department (the PI is the former chair of the bio dept), and as for the TA thing…I’ve only had one class taught by a TA, and I knew that going into it (intro soc class). </p>
<p>So presumably finding those things is easier if you’re at a small school. But don’t rule out big schools (assuming you like them for other reasons) just because you think you won’t get those things. It’ll probably just require more initial effort on your part.</p>